“We do hear, and a lot of people out there say it, that Mario Kart is all about luck,” he said. “That if you’re at the front then you’ll get hit with a blue shell, so it’s all about luck. That feature is not random – it doesn’t just happen.

“There is a lot of adjustment and there is a lot of thought and effort put into that system, and developing it in a way that actually promotes game balance. I would hope people understand that as well.”

The game’s director Kosuke Yabuki added during the interview that two Rainbow Road courses will be added: one based on the final level in Mario Kart N64 and an all-new course.

Earlier today, new information and screenshots were released for the title, which lands on May 30.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/04/03/mario-kart-8-balanced-thousands-of-times-during-development-two-rainbow-roads-added/feed/0StreetPass Relay idea came from NYC business trip, users in North America report issues with servicehttp://www.vg247.com/2013/09/07/streetpass-relay-idea-came-from-nyc-business-trip-users-in-north-america-report-issues-with-service/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/07/streetpass-relay-idea-came-from-nyc-business-trip-users-in-north-america-report-issues-with-service/#commentsSat, 07 Sep 2013 20:34:28 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=406014The idea for the Relay feature in StreetPass on 3DS came about due to a Nintendo engineer got when he visited New York City, according to the latest Iwata Asks.

According to Hideki Konno, he said the Relay feature was born after he was surprised over how few StreetPasses he logged when walking through Times Square.

“I was [StreetPassing with] much fewer people than I expected, so I thought we had better do something,” said Konno via Polygon.

After he returned to Japan he and his team started working on StreetPass Relay, which has a 3DS send data to a server. Then, when a user enters a Nintendo Zone hotspot the 3DS they have on their person will retrieve the data.

In America, according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the amount of StreetPass encounters which occur are only about “one-tenth to that of Japan.”

“I thought that was way too little, as if it was missing a zero,” he said. “Then I found out that it was even less in Europe. Even though the number of systems sold and the number of customers who had experienced StreetPass didn’t differ that much between each region, the number of encounters was drastically smaller.

“When you walk around a city in Japan, StreetPass is happening fairly frequently, so it’s a habit for a lot of people to walk around with their Nintendo 3DS. And I think not a few people go out with their Nintendo 3DS in America or Europe as well in hopes of having a StreetPass encounter.

“But I suspect that a lot of them must have gone home disappointed after not having passed anyone.”

There are approximately 100,000 hotspots around the world which rely on Amazon Web Services.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/07/streetpass-relay-idea-came-from-nyc-business-trip-users-in-north-america-report-issues-with-service/feed/1Mario Kart 8 dev cites F-Zero as influence, is hopeful for series’ returnhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/07/03/mario-kart-8-dev-cites-f-zero-as-influence-is-hopeful-for-series-return/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/03/mario-kart-8-dev-cites-f-zero-as-influence-is-hopeful-for-series-return/#commentsWed, 03 Jul 2013 10:15:25 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=385054Mario Kart 8 developers Hideki Konno and Kosuke Yabuki have shed light on how the game was influenced by F-Zero in a new interview, and have stressed that they’d like to see the anti-grav racing series return one day.

Speaking to French site Gamekult, Yabuki cited F-Zero and Super Mario Galaxy as sources for Mario Kart 8′s new anti-grav mechanics.

He also explained why we haven’t see a new F-Zero announced for Wii U yet, “It has always been a Mario Kart per console, so we wanted to get a new one to have more people interested by our new system. But I also hope that there will be an F-Zero.”

Konno added that he game has been in development for little over a year, and that the team is looking at remote play on the Wii U GamePad, but had nothing further to share at the time. There will also be more kart customisation over Mario Kart 7, and that track sizes will be larger than the last handheld offering.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/03/mario-kart-8-dev-cites-f-zero-as-influence-is-hopeful-for-series-return/feed/6Metal Mario and Lakitu added to Mario Kart 7 Rosterhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/09/14/metal-mario-and-lakitu-added-to-mario-kart-7-roster/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/09/14/metal-mario-and-lakitu-added-to-mario-kart-7-roster/#commentsWed, 14 Sep 2011 02:24:30 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=202272New gameplay footage has revealed that Mario Kart 7 will add Metal Mario and Lakitu to the starting grid for the very first time.

The reveal was made in a developer interview with Series Producer Hideki Konno.

Metal Mario is the shiny, metal of Mario that appeared in Super Mario 64. In Mario Kart 7 he will drive a metallic version of Mario’s kart. Lakitu is the bespectacled cloud-riding Koopa that has signaled the countdown at the starting line throughout the Mario Kart series. In Mario Kart 7 he will drive a wheeled version of his trademark cloud.

Konno states that Mario Kart 7 will feature “several” new characters, suggesting more characters will be revealed in the future.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/09/14/metal-mario-and-lakitu-added-to-mario-kart-7-roster/feed/4Third-parties interested in AR 3DS titles, says Nintendohttp://www.vg247.com/2011/05/04/third-parties-interested-in-ar-3ds-titles-says-nintendo/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/04/third-parties-interested-in-ar-3ds-titles-says-nintendo/#commentsWed, 04 May 2011 09:30:41 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=168395Nintendo chief Hideki Konno has said that third-parties are interested in making AR-based titles for 3DS.

Speaking to Nintendo Power magazine, Konno said ideas were coming in from outside the company, although it does itself have a “ton of plans” for the tech.

“It seems that AR technology is going to become even more widely known and popular,” he said.

“I think it’s going to be something that people will want to play around with, whether that’s on the developer side or consumer side. It’s already generating a ton of ideas within the Nintendo development teams, and we’e been hearing ideas come from outside developers as well.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/04/third-parties-interested-in-ar-3ds-titles-says-nintendo/feed/3Next Nintendo console unlikely to support 3Dhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/03/29/next-nintendo-console-unlikely-to-support-3d/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/29/next-nintendo-console-unlikely-to-support-3d/#commentsTue, 29 Mar 2011 22:07:57 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=159590So 3D, huh? Nintendo love a bit of that. But not for home consoles, according to Reggie Fils-Aime.

In a statement sure to fire the loins of Wii 2 believers, the Nintendo of America president told CNN 3D is unlikely to feature on the company’s next major console.

“We’ve not said publicly what the next thing for us will be in the home console space, but based on what we’ve learned on 3D, likely, that won’t be it,” he said.

The difference between the portable 3DS’s stereoscopic powers and that of other platforms is, of course, the need for glasses.

“I think at Nintendo, we realize that any sort of goggle-type 3D technology was not going to work,” Mario Kart Wii designer Hideki Konno chimed in.

“In order to make 3-D technology viable with video games, we thought we needed to have glasses-free 3D.”

The 3DS launched last week in the UK, Europe and US, and arrives in Australia tomorrow.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/29/next-nintendo-console-unlikely-to-support-3d/feed/53DS “not going to be competing” on mobile game prices, says Nintendohttp://www.vg247.com/2011/03/21/3ds-not-going-to-be-competing-on-mobile-game-prices-says-nintendo/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/21/3ds-not-going-to-be-competing-on-mobile-game-prices-says-nintendo/#commentsMon, 21 Mar 2011 16:06:33 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=157582Nintendo’s Hideki Konno has said that it will not “be competing” with standard mobile game prices with 3DS.

Konno, who was the project lead on the creation of the handheld, said in a Gamasutra interview that it was value over price as far as it was concerned.

“So now in terms of one dollar games, or free games, or whatever that is out there in the market, I mean, really, we’re not going to be competing with that,” he said.

“We’re not going to try to match that; we’re just going to continually strive to not just maintain, but increase, the quality of the entertainment that we’re providing, and let it sort itself out.

“Again, we’re not worried about competing at a price point level.”

Konno added that he believed the view wasn’t just exclusive to Nintendo.

“I believe that’s more than likely Sony and Microsoft’s opinion on that as well,” he said.

“Now of course as a customer, if somebody said to me, ‘Hey, we’ve got Call of Duty on your portable device and it’s only going to cost you 100 yen,’ yeah, I’d be super stoked, really excited about that.

“And I’d be really excited to see a great game at a really cheap price, but I just don’t think that you could make a game that’s immersive and as big as, let’s say Call of Duty, or any other large title, and sell it at that price point; it’s just not possible.”

3DS launches this Friday in the UK and Europe. It’ll release this Sunday in the US. Read our full comprehensive list of both launches by Keza MacDonald here.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/21/3ds-not-going-to-be-competing-on-mobile-game-prices-says-nintendo/feed/3Konno talks about Nintendo’s 3DS plans outside of gaming, NGPhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/03/10/konno-outlines-nintendos-3ds-plans-outside-of-gaming-talks-ngp/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/10/konno-outlines-nintendos-3ds-plans-outside-of-gaming-talks-ngp/#commentsThu, 10 Mar 2011 14:06:36 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=155199Nintendo’s Hideki Konno has said that when it comes to comparing 3DS with Sony’s upcoming NGP handheld, it’s something that’s a bit hard to do at this point.

Expanding beyond games

Speaking in an interview with Game Informer, Konno said the goal with creating 3DS was to “surprise,” customers with “new unique experiences.”

“I don’t know that our goals are the same [as Sony's] for one thing,” he said. “As far as from a user’s perspective, I love these digital gadgets, so when the NGP goes on sale I’m sure I’ll take a look at it and see what software is available for it and what the system can do. Whether or not Sony or Nintendo through the launches of these two different hardware systems are trying to achieve the same goal that’s something that I don’t know. It’s difficult to speak to what they’re trying to do.”

Konno also told the site Nintendo had considered including Netflix on 3Ds for awhile before it was announced at GDC. The inclusion of the service was due to Nintendo’s expanding audience and with 3DS, the expansion was something it wanted to continue – but Konno could not say whether the firm plans to expand outside of gaming with the device further.

“We can bring new and interesting experiences to the table that continue to move us closer to that goal of expanding the audience and that’s definitely something we want to explore,” he said. “So short answer, yes, we do want to move in that direction. Concrete plans, I cannot say.”

Wireless, hotspots, always-on Internet

Konno said Nintendo has ideas it wants to bring to the market as far as Internet services go, but it is reluctant at the moment to include anything which would “increase the cost to the end user.”

“To be honest, it’s not something I can speak to directly at the moment,” he said. “When we have some new ideas that we want to bring to the market and we look at how to do that, if that’s the technology or the tool, then we’ll consider it. Personally, I don’t want something that’s going to increase the cost to the end user. If you’re using cellular technology and you have to pay a data plan fee every month, that impacts the end user’s bottom line. It’s not something that I would be very excited about as a consumer.

“For example, if, in the process of Mario Kart becoming a 3D title, the price was doubled from $40 to $80, I’d have to think about whether or not that was worth it. Personally I just think there are a lot of obstacles between the incorporation of new things like that.”

Konno goes to on to say, this time to Guardian UK, that the firm hopes to enter into an agreement with a provider in the UK so the country will have available hotpots for 3DS, just like in the US. However, he doesn’t “have any details about that,” at present “but hopefully,” will soon.

“In North America, for example, we have a collaboration with AT&T, which is providing us with 10,000 wireless hot-spots across the country,” he said. “So if you pass through one of those hot-spots, just like in your home, data will be pushed out to you automatically – again, it’s a passive transaction which takes place in the background; you don’t have to do anything other than be within range.

“They aren’t special hotspots created just for Nintendo 3DS, they’re just hotspots.”

It was announced earlier in the month that Skyhook Wireless would support NGP as the main location-based program, which would enable users to find a location using a combination of wi-fi, cell-phone triangulation and GPS. This will allow users to connect to mobile networks on-the-go, like when traveling by train or bus.

3DS is out in Japan now, and releases in the UK and US in the next couple of weeks.

So far, NGP is slated for Japan later this year, and a holiday release is presumed for the rest of Sony’s territories.

Yakuza 4′s quiz games will not be included in the English version due to the text being in Japanese, and the soundtrack intro will not be the same due to licensing issues. Hostesses will be in it though, so rest easy.

“I became involved with development starting in 2008, but at that time, it didn’t have 3D visuals,” 3DS group manager Hideki Konno told Famitsu (via 1UP). “From Nintendo’s perspective, they’ve released 3D Hot Rally [a Japan-only 8-bit game that used 3D shutter glasses] and the Virtual Boy; they’ve had a history of experimenting with 3D visuals. With this system, you could say the timing was just right for us. It was the right time to start thinking about using the latest in high-tech and try out glasses-free 3D.”

So then, what did the 3DS have going for it? Was it set to be a bite-sized Wii for on-the-go waggling? Nope. In fact, that came even later.

“[The motion sensors] were actually put in pretty late,” said Konno. “We officially went with them just before E3 last year [in June]. The boat had really left the port by that point – the hardware team had the final specs and just had to work it all out. Then, in the midst of that, Miyamoto said ‘This isn’t enough; we can really change things if there’s a gyro sensor in there.’ We had a prototype for the sensor already, so we got everyone together to try it out, and the conclusion we came up with was ‘Well, if we can do things this fun with it, I guess we’ve got no choice.’”

So basically, Nintendo’s latest little console that could was – at one point – less of a 3DS and more of a Me-Too-DS. Can you feel that? It’s as though millions of shareholders cried out and were suddenly silenced.

Nintendo’s shown off in a new Iwata Asks earlier prototypes of what 3DS used to look like before its E3 reveal last June.

The first model shown was basically known as the “minimum model”, according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.

The second SKU showed off a model not too similar to DS Lite, where things such as the D-Pad and analogue slider could be swapped about.

Iwata also talks about the troubles of getting working hardware on display to attendees at E3 last year alongside hardware designer Kenichi Sugino, system designer Ryuji Umezu and project producer Hideki Konno.

In the latest version of Iwata Asks, Nintendo’s president chats with 3DS’s Kenichi Sugino and Hideki Konno about some of the hurdles they experienced trying to convince co-workers the new handheld was not another failed attempt at 3D like Virtual Boy.

3DS designer Kenichi Sugino, was involved in the creation of Virtual Boy, the failure of which apparently “traumatized,” him. Hideki Konno worked on the 3D versions of Luigi’s Mansion and Mario Kart for the system, which were never released because the firm “just couldn’t get past the problem of how to sell it,” said Konno.

“Because of those hard experiences, when I told people at Nintendo how fun 3D games are, I couldn’t get them to immediately believe in the potential,” he added. “I’d propose something, and they’d be like, ‘Huh? Are we still doing that?’ I decided to at least experiment.

“First we made it possible to represent Mario and Luigi in 3D. Then I talked to the development staff of Mario Kart Wii and asked if they could make it in 3D, and it went relatively well. A few weeks later, we could display Mario Kart Wii in 3D on the newest 3D panel. When I saw it, the 3D looked more natural than I had expected. I thought it was good and had some people at the company look at it.”

“I, too, had been through some really tough times with 3D,” said Sugino. “I think I was traumatized by it. “So the moment I heard the 3D idea, I instinctively reacted against it. I even said, ‘No, let’s not do that.’

“But when I saw the demo, I thought, ‘Wow! Amazing!’ And when other staff members asked me what I thought, I told them that if even someone like me, who had been traumatized, thought it was amazing, then everyone else would definitely think it was amazing, too. It was surprising to see 3D images with my bare eyes.”

You can read the full transcript of the conversation through the link up top.

3DS is out next month in Japan, March 25 in Europe and March 27 in the US.

Hideki Konno, head of Nintendo’s EAD Software Development Group No. 1, has said marketing 3DS will be “very tricky” for the firm.

Speaking with Edge, Konno said within Nintendo there were those who doubted the handheld, until its tech was seen firsthand.

“We did hear doubtful voices,” he said. “We weren’t completely successfully with Virtual Boy so there was a suspicious tone within the company.

“First, I introduced the latest technology – the 3D panel – attached it to the Wii and showed a demo showing Mario Kart Wii and Animal Crossing. In Japan there’s a maxim: a glance is better than a hundred words. Even with words I wasn’t able to convince anyone. So I presented the demo to Miyamoto and Iwata and they were stunned and agreed to take it in that direction.”

Despite winning over naysayers at Nintendo, Konno said the biggest hurdle will be winning over the public.

“We are constantly discussing how to market the product,” he said. “Our internal PR departments are saying that we should use cinema advertising, because cinemas are capable of showing 3D movies. But our key point with 3DS is that you don’t need glasses, which you obviously need to use in cinemas. So we think regular marketing and promotional activities will be very tricky for us. I think that a lot of awareness about 3DS will be spread by word of mouth.

“Consumers can’t see the real surprise without the 3DS in front of them – cool footage isn’t enough – but [when] I went to our booth [at E3] and found consumers being surprised, saying ‘Wow!’, I was relieved to see those reactions.”

Those at E3 were apparently won over enough for the handheld to garner two Game Critics Awards: one for Best of Show, and another for Best Hardware.